God loves it when His plan comes together!

He loves it When His plan Comes Together

Ephesians 1:3-14

† IHS †

May you understand the pleasure that God finds, in pouring out His grace, mercy and love on us as we are drawn into Christ!

A-Team

Sometimes as I watched the show, I thought it was a comedy, sometimes a action adventure epic, other times a serious drama where people were rescued from oppression.  The characters played their roles, the Colonel, Faceman, B.A. and the possibly crazy pilot Murdock…so well. 

Yeah – I am actually talking about the old show A-Team.  Because there was a line in every show that came to mind as I prepared to share what is revealed in the Epistle reading this morning.

The line of the colonel, when the people are rescued, as the team regathers, as he sits back and exclaims, “I love it when a plan comes together.”

Not that they planned anything better than I planned how the last five years would go. We aren’t God, our plans.. well.. their our plans.

This passage causes me to picture our Father in heaven watching as Jesus is born, and ministers to people, dies, rises, ascends, as the Spirit is poured out into our hearts. As He sees what has been planned before there was even the earth, our Father in Heaven, with a twinkle in His eye, uses similar words. Hear again how Paul describes God’s attitude?  Reaction? How God responds to the completion of His plan.

5 This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.

9 God has now revealed to us his mysterious plan regarding Christ, a plan to fulfill his own good pleasure.

Hence the title of this sermon, “God loves it when His plan comes together!”

Look at God’s work  (we have a better a team)

I want you to hear some of the passage again. 

Verse 4:  God loved us and chose us

Verse 5:  God decided in advance to adopt us, and This is what He wanted to do and it gave Him good pleasure

Verse 9, God has now revealed His mysterious plan regarding Christ, a plan to fulfill His own good pleasure

Verse 11 – He chose us in advance,  and then, He makes everything work out according to His plan

Verse 12 – God’s purpose was

Verse 13 – He will give us the inheritance He promised

Verse 14 – by giving you the Holy Spirit whom He promised long ago

Do you see how these words, over and over tell us that this is God’s will, His plan?  Do you see the great desire Paul describes that God has a plan in place from before time? 

Even more incredible, can we begin to understand that this plan isn’t just a last minute thing – but He desires to do it, that God takes incredible pleasure when this plan comes together?

Look at “In Christ” I-R Stuff  (they have a real mission)

So what is the plan?  Well that is well laid out as well… and always comes down to the fact that we are in Christ.

God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.

God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself

God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son.

At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ

Because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God,

we Jews who were the first to trust in Christ would bring praise and glory to God. 13 And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you.

when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit,

14 The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people.

Nine times in this passage’s eleven verses, we hear about our being in Christ, about us being brought in and adopted as the children of God. About God brining us into a relationship.  A relationship that is defined by His love and desire…

His plan to save us is to deliver to Himself a people, a people to love, a people to care for, to share life with for eternity, a people with whom to have a relationship deeper, freer more complete than any other. 

Us.

To do this brings Him pleasure.

Each time one of us comes home, each time a sinner trusts God, each time a life is made whole.

No wonder Peter can write to the church and say,

always have your answer ready for people who ask you the reason for the hope that you have. 16  But give it with courtesy and respect and with a clear conscience,     1 Peter 3:15a-16b (NJB)

 
What a hope – to know God has always had this plan, a plan to find us in Jesus Christ, and place the Spirit in our hearts, so that we will always know we are God’s people.

That we are forgiven, freed, adopted, chosen,

Think on this for a moment – God’s work & Plan and desire and what gives him pleasure = You in Christ!

Going to read those verses describing God’s plan again, this time I want you to hear it being said to you….. and listen and hear them, for they are about us, and all who trust in God…

God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.

God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself

God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son.

At the right time he will bring (US ) and everything together under the authority of Christ

Because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God,

we (Jews) who were the first to trust in Christ would bring praise and glory to God. 13 And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you.

when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit,

14 The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people.

That is what happened when God saved us, when verse 6 became true on the cross, and at our baptism, and when we take and eat His body and blood in and under the bread and wine,

6 So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. 7 He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins.

It is beyond words, this love of God that we know, that is the fulfilment of His plan and promise, a plan that He takes great pleasure in seeing come to fulfillment in everyone of our lives… as we are brought together in Christ…

A place where we indescribable peace, the indescribable peace of God, in which we are kept by our Lord Jesus Christ…. AMEN?